Summary

In the Prologue, Cassandra “Cassie” Maddox, a detective and the narrator, reports that she still dreams about Whitethorn House. She imagines returning to the empty house, but has a sense that Daniel and the others are still there, as if she had gotten it all wrong.

In Chapter 1, Cassie tells her reader she will be narrating the story of Alexandra “Lexie” Madison, a woman who technically never existed. Cassie and Frank Mackey, her boss in undercover, created Lexie Madison as a cover for Cassie when she infiltrated a college drug ring. Cassie’s stint in undercover ended when the drug dealer stabbed her. She got her choice of assignments and chose the Murder Division. She explains she got out of Murder because it became a “head-wrecker” (8) and joined Domestic Violence. Cassie sensed through the changes that there would always be “consequences to...